In combination with today’s release of the new CoolBrickMovies.com website, I am
announcing the official Cool Brick Movies – NWBrickCon Animation Competition
that will take place on Saturday of NWBrickCon 2003. What follows are the
official rules of the competition, which can be seen athttp://www.coolbrickmovies.com/articles/nwbc_ac/

OFFICIAL ENTRY RULES FOR NORTH WEST BRICK CONVENTION ANIMATION COMPETITION 2003
The following are the submission guidelines for the animation competition at
NWBrickCon 2003, in Seattle, WA. These are subject to change at any time without
notification. Any individual submitting to this contest agrees to the following
terms.

1. Event
The animation competition will occur for approximately one hour on the Saturday
evening of NWBrickCon, 2003.

1.1 Explanation of event.
The competition will consists of two parts. The first part of the competition
will be the screening of the films. This will last roughly one hour. The second
part of the competition will consist of the audience and the event organizers
voting on the entries shown. Full details on this are giving in section 3. .

1.2 Purpose of event.
The purpose of this event is twofold. The competition will stimulate the
community of filmmakers to produce high-quality films and will raise the
standard of these films. Also, these films will provide entertainment for the
attendees at the event.

2. Submissions
The follow are the criteria for entries into the animation competition. All
submissions must be received by September 15th, 2003. Films may only be
submitted if they are sent, in .mov or .avi format, with no compression or the
DivX codec. They must be stored on a website or server from which a download is
possible, and can not exceed 50MB. An e-mail must then be sent tonwbc_filmsubmit@coolbrickmovies.com with the following information: the title of
the film, the director/filmmaker of the film, the length of the film, the e-mail
of the filmmaker, an address to which a prize/award may be sent, and any
additional comments (optional). Any entry without all of these items will be
disqualified. If the file size is too large, please contact Seth Rotkin atbrickmaster@coolbrickmovies.com for a list of other codecs that may be accepted
under these circumstances. If the film will not play on Seth Rotkin’s laptop due
to different codecs and formats, it will not be considered for the event. The
filmmaker submits at his or her own risk. If Seth Rotkin does not receive the
entry, or it will not play properly, the entry is disqualified and the filmmaker
will be notified. Period.

2.1 Basic guidelines for entries
The following are guidelines by which an entry must conform to to be considered
for the event. Violation of any of the following constitutes an entry that WILL
NOT be shown at the event. Whether or not an entry breaks one of these rules is
the sole decision of Seth Rotkin and the event coordinators.
a. Profanity – Any profanity will immediately disqualify the entry. Keep in mind
that people of all ages will be in attendance.
b. Violence – Since the entries are made from LEGO components, violence is in
most cases not graphic and will be allowed. Excessive violence or somehow
graphic violence will not be tolerated.
c. Content – The majority of the film must be made from LEGO parts.
d. Length – Any entry over eight minutes or under thirty seconds will not be
considered.
e. History – Any film that has been awarded any prize at any other film
festival, including but not limited to competitions at BrickFest or BricksWest
will automatically be disqualified.
f. Origin – If the credited filmmaker is not the one who submits the film, it
will be disqualified. Only submit your own work.

2.2 Entry ranking
Of the remaining entries, only about sixty minute’s worth will be allowed to
show. The priority will be determined by a ranking between 1 and 100. This
ranking, based solely on facts AND NOT OPINIONS, will be determined at the time
of submission by Seth Rotkin. The following shows the point breakdown.
40 points – Forty points are awarded to any film that has not won any online
competition or award of any kind.
30 points – Thirty points are awarded to only one entry per each filmmaker. The
filmmaker may decide which of his or her films this should go to if they have
submitted multiple entries. This is automatically awarded to an entry if the
filmmakers has no other entries. This is to allow one person to submit many
works, but only allow more than one to show if there are not many other
submissions. 20 points – This is awarded to an entry between three and five
minutes of length.
5 points – This is awarded to an entry if the film is to be premiered at the
event [the film is currently not online, was never online or available for
distribution, and will not be until after the competition in October ends].
5 points – This is awarded to a film that has declared with their submission how
many points they should receive, without these five points. If the filmmaker has
given the correct total after verification [e.g. if they have declared which
points they do/don’t deserve properly], this is be awarded.

A list will be compiled of the submitted films, listing the title of the film
and the number of points received, in chronological order with the first film
received at the top to the last film received at the bottom. After September the
15th, the last day that films will be allowed to be submitted, the actual films
that will be shown at the competition will be chosen. First, the highest score
that any film received will be found. Films from the list with this score will
be added to the venue, starting from the top and working down. If the total
running time has not been filled, the next highest score will be calculated and
films with this score will be added, again from the top down. This continues
until approximately sixty minutes of film have been added to the venue. As can
be ascertained from this explanation, if there is a tie score for the last spot
in the venue, the film submitted earlier will be chosen. If there are not many
entries, all films on the list will be added. The venue list will be reordered
so that films run in order of date received, not ranking.

2.2.1 Purpose of ranking The ranking system restricts the types of films that
will be shown, while not setting many limits on valid films. Instead of not
allowing certain films to be shown, the films will be allowed for consideration,
but certain types of films are given priority. New films without much exposure
will be taken over older films that have been viewed many times before.

3. Voting, Awards and Prizes The audience will be given forms at the end of the
screening on which they can vote for their favorite film shown. The Audience’s
Choice prize/award will be given to the film with the most votes. The event
coordinators will vote separately. The Event Coordinator’s Choice prize/award
will be given to the film with the most votes, or in the case that this is the
same as the Audience’s Choice, the film with the second most votes. Awards and
prizes are to be determined at a later date.

There are many different types of compression that can be selected when rendering in .mov format (including audio), and they can considerably limit/change the performace of the film. Which do you intend for us to use? Any idea of bitrates?

And are you ruling out divx or including it? It is extremely ambiguous from your wording. (There are too many clauses in the sentence for it to make perfect sense)

And you do realise that uncompressed .avi files (especially if played off a hard drive) often play MORE slowly than compressed files…? Due to fragmentation and power of pc etc?

Can you give us a list of codecs you accept, rather than a private email?

The points system is a good idea:
BUT (and a big but) Seeing as how you are awarding 20 points for films 3-5 minutes in length… why not just specify this length. (Plus, any film not getting the 40 points will automatically be disqualified based upon your ‘history’ point e.)
Seems to me the points system WAS a good idea, but it is extremely limited. I would prefer you just state how you want films submitted etc… rather than make us ‘add up’ and check we qualify.

It really seems like you WANT this limit 3-5, and I expect you’ll get plenty of films that fulfil this requirement.

I’m curious though- I’ve read through the rules twice and I can see no mention of a theme.
Am I just blind or are you allowing the movies to be about anything and of any type so long as they fit the other criterea?

LoganArts Co – No, you do not have to be in attendence to submit a film! I would recommend that anyone that could attend should, though. NWBrickCon takes place the first weekend of October right next to the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington.

shootin bricks – There is no particular theme. I did this because this is the first NWBrickCon contest of any sort, so I decided to leave it open. I future years, I may prune it down.

hali – (Wow, lots of questions!) As for codecs, compression, etc… All I was trying to do there was make it so that filmers would only have to submit their movies one time (since, if it doesn’t run on my laptop, I really cannot play it at the con!) You can submit in any form, really, and I will accept, as long as I can play it on my laptop! The safest thing is to submit to me a link to a conservative version (basically no codecs) and to a preferred link that I will try to use first. As for points, what I was trying to do was allow basically anyone to enter. At that point, if very few people entered, the submission rules would be broader. If many joined, only specific films that fit into specific guidelines would be taken as prioity.

I will be out of town for two weeks, but I will answer any more questions when I return.

I think there are a number of films approaching completion that either didn’t get done in time for Brickfest, or weren’t meant for it. I’m bumping and stickying this topic so that maybe some of those films might find their way to the NWBrickCon.

Wow, methinks I’ll enter! Just happen to have a film getting close to release…

One question for Seth, though…could you possibly accept a .wmv? It’ll play on all laptops running Windows that have Windows Media Player installed. I can’t convert to .mov AFAIK and the avi for my film would be astronomical.